Stopover
by deaka
Summary: LukeMara one shot, missing scene. Luke and Mara take a short break on their way to the Chimaera in Vision of the Future


**Title:** "Stopover"  
**Author:** deaka  
**Characters:** Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade  
**Keywords: **Missing scene, romance, vignette

**Summary:** Time for a first date, already. Sort of.

**A/N:** A missing scene from _Vision of the Future_, in which Luke and Mara take a moment to catch their breath. Set after the departure from Nirauan and before the final chapter aboard the _Chimaera_.

* * *

_"Next stop, Coruscant," Luke said with a sigh, leaning back tiredly in the copilot's seat._

_"Next stop, the nearest New Republic base or one of Karrde's outposts," Mara corrected. "I don't know about you, but I want a shower, some clean clothes, and something besides ration bars to eat."_

--Chapter 42, _Vision of the Future_

* * *

Luke exited the Chiss ship behind Mara, landing lightly on the metal deck. The bay was deserted. Luke gathered this was a less than pivotal base as New Republic bases came; it was also possible that a number of this particular base's usual staff had been reassigned to the Camaas crisis. 

"Shower first, or food?" Luke asked.

Mara looked indecisive, not an expression Luke commonly saw on her. "Can't I do both at once?" she asked longingly.

"You could," Luke said. "But I think the quality of the experience might take a dive."

"Hm," Mara said. For no apparent reason, she took his hand. It still felt slightly odd – not in a bad way, but in that way that woke a tingly shock and a small, pleased mental adjustment. _Different now. Right._ Maybe that was why she did it. "Food," she said firmly, and started off toward the docking bay doors, Luke following by necessity in her wake. "_Then_ shower and clean clothes."

"Sounds good to me." Her hand was warm and dry in his. There were calluses on her palm, and a couple of raised areas that felt like scars. Luke liked her hands, and wouldn't mind examining them more closely.

Mara gave him a slight frown, and Luke smiled, perfectly innocently.

They reached the commissary without difficulty. The base, luckily, was built around a floor plan that was shared by many similarly-designed outposts, eliminating confusion for personnel. The commissary was fairly small, and empty apart from a few cleaning droids.

The food looked fairly standard, but after weeks living on ration bars alone, Luke was happy to take anything he could get, and he suspected from the way Mara inhaled over the pale yot bean puree that she felt the same way.

"Do you realise," Mara said, after a pause in which they found a table with an appropriate view of all exits, sat, and began to eat, "that this could well qualify as our first date?"

Luke chewed, swallowed, and agreed. "Although," he added, "I think it usually takes place _before_ the engagement."

"True," Mara acknowledged. "And generally the gap between first meeting and first date is somewhat less than ten years."

"Somewhat," Luke agreed.

"A lovely atmosphere, though," Mara said.

Luke looked around the brightly-lit room, with its bare metal tables and blocky chairs. "Perfect."

Mara touched her hair, quickly twisted into a knot before they landed, and pulled a wry face. "And we're suitably dressed."

Luke looked at her, in the stained and torn jumpsuit that she'd worn through the caves, through a blaster shot to the shoulder, through climbing and tears and loss and blasterfire and battle and deluge. She wore no makeup, and there were shadows under her eyes and a fading bruise on her cheek from the flood though the caves. Limp tendrils of her hair were escaping haphazardly. "You," he said with absolute sincerity, "look beautiful."

Mara looked taken aback for a moment, and Luke smiled. He touched her hand on the table, squeezed her fingers gently.

Mara blinked, and ran an eye over him in return. Luke felt his face warm slightly. He was in about the same condition as she was, if not worse, given the good dozen rips in his clothing he'd picked up on his initial trek when he'd first arrived on Nirauan, as well as a handful of assorted scorch marks from Chiss weaponry. Plus he was sporting itchy stubble on his jaw, and his hair was getting longer than he ordinarily wore it.

"Yeees," Mara said slowly, with a look in her eyes that made Luke's face feel warmer. "You're not looking too bad either." She turned her hand somehow in his, and stroked her fingers along his palm, and _that_ was a surprise. Luke didn't quite jump, but he did blink a bit and say something like, "Hnh."

They looked at each other for a while. Then Mara said, "I still want a shower."

"I bet you say that on all your dates," Luke replied, and Mara rolled her eyes. She did smile though. Luke loved that smile, and loved it all the more because it he'd watched it become more and more natural with each passing year.

They finished eating, and headed for the habitation area of the base. The personnel quarters appeared to consist of a series of rooms set off a long corridor, currently darkened to match a sleep-setting for most of the base's inhabitants. The base commander had provided a long list of available rooms for them to choose from, perhaps a little overwhelmed at such an illustrious name visiting his isolated base.

"D-1100," Luke said, at the third door along. "Was that on the list?"

"Yes," Mara said. "It's the first we've seen. It'll do." She keyed it open.

"Uh," Luke said. "Do you want me to—" He gestured up the corridor.

"Do you _want_ to keep looking through all those rooms until you find another one from that ridiculously lengthy list?" Mara cocked an eyebrow.

"… No."

"Then get in here."

Mara had her shower, and Luke used the room's HoloNet receiver and realised that there was a lot to catch up on. Mara finished her shower, coming out wearing slightly too-large fatigues provided by the base commander, her hair loose. She sat next to him on the bed, and together they watched the news feed, beamed directly from Coruscant, announcing the declaration of an official truce between the New Republic and the Empire.

Luke found it was he who reached for her hand, this time. Her skin was shower-warmed, and she smelled like cleanness and warmth and Mara. Her fingers squeezed his, and she said, "Looks like our big news might not cause such a stir after all."

Luke laughed, and closed his eyes. "Peace," he said. "Peace, with the Empire." He leaned in toward Mara gently, her loose, wet hair brushing his forehead. She tilted her head against his, and he thought he felt her smile.

They kissed later, Mara with her arms around his shoulders, Luke holding her tightly.

Mara touched her lips when they parted. "Huh," she said. "Even better when I'm not up to my waist in cold water."

"Having narrowly avoided drowning," Luke added.

"So romantic," Mara said, with heavy irony. Luke laughed, and kissed her again.

She fell asleep with her head tilted against his shoulder. Luke twined his fingers through hers, and watched her until sleep took him as well.

-end-


End file.
